Advanced Pushups - When Regular Pushups Just Aren't Enough!

Advanced pushups can give you a killer chest workout.
Whether you are a guy or a girl, there are many advanced pushup techniques that can punish your pecs –
and many other muscles at the same time!

There are many guys who focus on heavy
bench presses, yet there are many advanced pushup variations that they are NOT
able to do!

DON’T BE ONE OF THOSE "TOUGH" GUYS THAT CAN’T HANDLE THEIR OWN BODYWEIGHT!

Don't get caught up in the hype like so many guys when it comes to bench presses! I guess it can be considered an "OK" exercise, but I haven't done a barbell bench press workout in at least 5 years!

If your goals include functional strength, losing weight and looking good, then include some of these advanced pushups that not only work the chest but also your abs and many other muscles!

How to ramp it up!
Enough talk – Let’s get to it!!

I
will first describe three basic ways to make pushups harder: 1) hand
placement, 2) angle of your body 3) and
instability.

Then, we can explore
several variations and combo exercises that include pushups.

1) Hand PlacementDiamond Pushups: Bringing your hands
together so the tips of your forefingers and your thumbs form a diamond, lower
yourself to the floor so that the diamond comes roughly to the center of your
chest. Why does this make it
harder? The closer you bring your hands
together, the greater the range of motion will be at the ELBOW. This makes the short head of the tricep work
that much harder!!

Staggered Hands:Position one hand at shoulder level or higher,
and the other hand about even with your lower ribs…don’t knock it until you try
it!

2) Body Angle
Elevating your feet: The higher your
feet are, the more weight that is transferred to your arms!

3) InstabilityIn the last few years doing exercises in a “wobbly” or unstable
way has become popular.

Called an
“unstable environment”, this makes you work much harder to perform the exercise
while you are keeping balance. Equipment
such as a stability ball and a balance board can help you do just that with
advanced pushups!

Heck, who needs fancy equipment - try doing some pushups on a basketball and let me know you like it!

One of my favorite instability
exercises is using gymnastic rings. They
can be done close to the floor or higher up to make it “easier”.

...Some other Advanced Pushup techniques...

Try one leg!
Even doing a standard pushup, lifting one of your feet off the ground a few
inches changes changes it into an advanced pushup! As soon as
you do it, you will feel your core tighten up in a whole new way. And to make it even harder, open up one of
your legs by swinging it out to the side – the further out you go, the harder
it is!

One Arm Pushups
These are popular enough that they deserve their own page….CLICK HERE! (coming soon)

Hindu Pushups
These are also popular enough to deserve their own page….CLICK HERE! (coming soon)

Triangle Pushups
Lower yourself so your chin touches one of your hands, then push up and lower yourself
so your chin touches the other hand.

Archer PushupsPlace your hands a little wider than shoulder width. Keeping one arm straight, lower your body towards the other hand. At the bottom position, your chest should be touching one of your hands right about the nipple line and the other arm should be straight out to the side (or almost straight). Push up, then lower towards the other side. You will be pushing up mainly with one arm, which makes this a great progression towards the mighty one arm pushup!

There is almost an endless number of strenuous
advanced pushups variations….check out this video for some ideas…(coming soon)